ISBN 13: 978 0 00 711781 9
The Silent and the Damned
Robert Wilson
At seven years old, Mario Vega faces a terrible tragedy — his parents are dead in an apparent suicide pact.
But Inspector Javier Falcon has his doubts. In the brutal heat of a Seville summer, he dissects the disturbing life of the boy’s father, Rafael Vega. His investigation draws threats from the Russian mafia whose corruption reaches deep into the city. He questions a creative American couple with a destructive past and uncovers the misery of a famous actor whose only son is in prison for an appalling crime.
More suicides follow and one of them is a senior policeman. As a forest fire rages through the hills above the city Falcon must sweat out the truth that connects it all — and find the final secret in the dark heart of Vega’s life.
‘Robert Wilson’s plotting is intricate, his detective endearingly human, Seville a captivating venue. This is crime fiction of high order’
MARCEL BERLINS,
‘First rate … a taut, gripping narrative and a sensitive study of the tormented detective’
ISBN 13: 978 0 00 711785 7
AUTHOR’S NOTE
About halfway through writing
Also by Robert Wilson
JAVIER FALCON NOVELS
BRUCE MEDWAY NOVELS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Before I could start writing this book I had to find out how the police and the judiciary worked and I interviewed a number of people who were all friendly and helpful. I would like to thank Magistrado Juez Decano de Sevilla Andres Palacios, los fiscales de Sevilla and the Inspector Jefe del Grupo de Homocidios de Sevilla Simon Bernard Espinosa, who was also very informative about his approach to murder cases. The characters who appear in this book with these titles are in no way representative of the real people nor are the professional relationships between them at all typical.
I would also like to thank Dr Fernando Ortiz Blasco who not only helped me with my hip but was also very informative about bullbreeding and bullfighting.
On the Tangier end of things I was very fortunate to be introduced by Frances Beveridge to Patrick Thursfield, who in turn put me in touch with Mercedes Guitta who lived in Tangier during and after World War 2. I thank them all for their help.
My friend Bindy North was good enough to run her professional eye over the psychological dialogues and give me her opinion, for which I am very grateful.
The main reason this book was written was because of my two friends who live in Seville, Mick Lawson and Jose Manuel Blanco Marcos. Over many years they have decanted, consciously and inadvertently, massive amounts of information about Spain, Andalucia and Seville. They have also been incredibly supportive of me throughout my writing career, rebuilding me when I’ve turned up broken and celebrating with me when things have gone right. I have dedicated the book to them, which is a small way of saying that no man could wish for better friends.
Finally I want to thank my wife, Jane, who doesn’t see much more of me than a hunched back over a desk but, as always, has helped me with research, given me the benefit of her very sure editorial eye and despatched my frequent doubts to the abyss. I cannot conceive of writing a book without her, which must make her my muse.
About The Author
THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE
Robert Wilson was born in 1957. A graduate of Oxford University, he has worked in shipping and advertising in London and trading in West Africa. He is married and divides his time between England, Spain and Portugal.
He was awarded the CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction for his fifth novel,
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